Honouring the questions: shifts in the treatment of religion in children’s literature

Abstract

Contemporary trends in the treatment of religion in children’s literature represent a dramatic shift from the religious didacticism of past centuries. Books from mainline publishing houses today that deal with religion tend to eschew religious assumptions or doctrine, focusing rather on the questions young people have. This article describes four categories of such questions: those arising when religious institutions or leaders disappoint or betray; intellectual questions arising from tensions between science and religion or the presence of suffering in the world; religious implications of social issues such as gender inequity or the break-up of family structures; and the quest for a faith tradition which one can embrace. A representative book in each category is discussed; other relevant books are included in an appendix. These novels do not provide definitive answers. While each reaches a satisfying conclusion, these conclusions are quite varied and open-ended. The pattern that runs through them in treating young people’s questions with respect as signs of intelligence and a normal part of a spiritual journey. Such books can provide young readers with a sense of companions on their own journeys.

Keywords:

• children’s literature
• spirituality
• religion
• religious questions
• religious quest

Notes

1. As this paper is being written, Louisiana state educational authorities are battling over whether, or to what extent, Darwin’s theory of evolution can be included in public secondary-school science textbooks.

2. One of these self-identified atheists, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, brought a landmark – and highly controversial – lawsuit challenging religious practice in the public schools. Despite the US Constitution’s provision for the separation of state and religion, public schools in the US had continued to be influenced by Protestant Christian beliefs and observances. In 1963, the US Supreme Court ruled that the practice of prayer, Bible reading, and religious ceremony in public schools was unconstitutional (Murray v. Curtlett, 374 US 203).

3. A notable challenge to the doctrine of original sin that had informed The New England Primer and Spiritual Milk, and that has been broadly accepted by the Christian church in America, was that of Matthew Fox, in his Original Blessing, published in 1983. In the world of religious education for children, such progressive approaches as Sophia Cavaletti’s Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and Jerome Berryman’s Godly Play also emerged in the late twentieth century, approaches that respect and encourage children’s questions about biblical stories and traditions.